Up the Crooked Stairs
by slightlysmall
Summary: Not yet 19, Audrey is supposed to be marrying a man she doesn't love in just a few hours. Miles away, Percy Weasley agrees to visit a Muggle cafe his father loves in order to help heal their rocky relationship. In the beginning, it's the clothes that get them talking.


Written for the apprentice competition, I used the prompts: (1) midnight; (2) "I promise you I'll…"; (3) 'It isn't right to wish pain on other people just because they hurt me first.' - Veronica Roth, Divergent; (4) Genre: hurt/comfort; (5) "Summertime Sadness" by Lana del Rey (especially the lines: "I got my red dress on tonight/…/got my hair up real big beauty queen style/high heels off, I'm feeling alive.")

I don't own anything you recognize.

This ties directly into my multichap Begin Again as backstory. The story takes place in the summer of 1999, but the cafe I send them to didn't open until 2005. It's the same cafe I use in the opening of Begin Again, which is why I decided to use it anyway...

Word Count: 1,635

* * *

"It's not too late to back out," my sister said as she stared over my shoulder into the dressing mirror.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I adjust my veil, trying to be more offended than I actually am. After all, it's what I've been thinking all morning. As I put on my dress. As I got my makeup done. As I looked once again at our best engagement picture. Why in the world was I marrying Steven Smith today?

"I mean it. You don't love him. You're eighteen. Barely out of A-levels. You're smart, sis. Smarter than to become just another Mrs. Smith." She leaned down and kissed my cheek, then turned to leave the dressing room. "Well, I guess I'll go arrange the flowers."

She left me staring at my reflection. I looked impeccable, truly. My hair done up real big - like a beauty queen. Red lipstick. Red dress. I didn't want a white one. Truth be told, I didn't think I deserved it. Not after what Steven had done to me. The whole reason I was marrying him in the first place. Still, I don't look broken from the outside. The red helps. It shows my brokenness.

I couldn't leave him, though. Despite what he'd done, I knew he loved me. And I couldn't inflict pain on him simply because he hurt me first. It's not my job. Two wrongs don't make a right, or whatnot. But sitting there and forced to stare at myself, I saw two versions of me at once. I remembered a film I saw in theaters last autumn, a silly Disney film my youngest sister, Katherine, asked me to join her at.

Mulan, half made up to become a bride, half a warrior. I could see both of them in myself as well, although my face was entirely painted, entirely a mask. Maybe I shouldn't be a bride today. Brides aren't eighteen. They don't wear red ball gowns to walk down the aisle.

And I can admit that they usually love the man waiting for them at the end.

* * *

"Percy, could you come here for a moment?"

I looked up from my work with a start. I still wasn't used to hearing my father address me. We spent so long ignoring each other that even the year we'd been tentatively reconciled hadn't helped enough. "Sure thing, Dad. What do you need?"

"Nothing, nothing. I just wanted to show you something." He stood in the kitchen, legs apart and shifting between them. He was so anxious and excited, like a child. Like Ron. I was nothing like my father, and I knew it.

"A… business card? The pictures don't even move."

"It's Muggle." Of course it was. What else would it be. "Best tea in the U.K., Percy. I thought maybe you'd like to try it. Since you're always drinking tea."

"Thanks, Dad. Maybe this afternoon," I said. "When I need a break."

"Promise?"

"I promise you, I'll go." He had been trying so hard to accept me again, even though I knew I didn't deserve their attention. But they didn't deserve to lose two sons. I marked a stopping place a few pages ahead in my research and got back to work. When I reached it, I would go to… I checked the business card again. Flat White Cafe in London. In the meantime, I had work to do.

* * *

I didn't even tell anyone. Just got up, high heels off, and walked out of the door. It was raining. In London. What a thought, I know. But I was barefoot and running away. I finally felt alive. I hoped Steven would understand, even as I knew he wouldn't. It would be difficult to never see him again, though. So many mutual friends, so many common social circles. I would have to take up residence in a whole different world to avoid him. But I was ready to.

When the rain got unbearable, and the woman reflected in the shop windows was unrecognizable, I turned in to the nearest acceptable place - a cafe in Soho. My dress was long enough that hopefully they wouldn't notice my bare feet.

As I took a seat, the reality of how wrong the day had been hit me. I didn't even grab my purse. No ID, no money, nothing. Going back to get it would mean facing my well-meaning family, my fiance waiting for me at the altar. I guess that was that.

"Excuse me, miss, is everything okay?"

I looked up, expecting a waiter. But waiters don't dress like they just left the nearest Dungeons and Dragons meeting. "Who are you?"

"The name's Percy. Percy Weasley." He stuck out his hand and I shook it awkwardly. "Now, what can I do for you?"

I said the first thing that came to mind. "Cafe au lait."

He smiled. "Coming right up."

Within a few minutes he was sitting across from me with a cafe au lait and a cup of plain tea - no cream, no sugar. "Here you go, miss."

"Why are you talking to me?"

"I'm kind of dumb about a lot of things, but I know that beautiful women don't usually sit in cafes in soaking wet ball gowns."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely. Normally when I go places, it's _my_ outfits that get all the stares. When no one gave me a second glance, I knew there had to be someone else. So please. Tell me."

"What time is it?"

"Half four."

"Well then I should be saying 'I do' right about now."

He took a sip. "My dad was right, this is fantastic tea. But you're supposed to be getting _married_ right now?"

I nodded, stared into my cup of coffee. They had made a face in the foam, and I thought again of Mulan, and the ways she saw her reflection changing. I thought about seeing my own face there instead. I couldn't look at this strange, nerdy man. No one had treated me so… humanely. Not in years. "I couldn't do it. I'm going to sound so strange for saying so, but the bits of me that are still seven and nine and eleven years old were so opposed to it. They knew I deserved better, even when I didn't.

"It took me too long to see it. But when I did, I did the only thing I still could. I ran."

"Literally?"

"Literally." We sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying our drinks, pretending like the entire populace wasn't staring at us. "Anyway, what about you? Why the strange outfit?"

"I'm not really from around here. I guess you could say I come from a subset of the population with its own culture, even though I'm British through and through."

"Do you always speak like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're reciting a textbook."

He laughed self-consciously. "Yes. I'm sorry about that. I'll just… I'll just go now."

"No. Please stay with me. I haven't had someone nice to chat to in I don't know how long."

And so he did. He stayed and we chatted about stars and constellations and siblings. We talked about coffee versus tea and our opinions on European relations. We chatted until the manager kicked us out of the cafe.

"Do you have somewhere I can take you?"

I bit my lip. "No. Not really. I'm sorry."

He smiled. "You have absolutely nowhere to go and no one to help you?"

"That's right. Why does that make you smile?"

"I have an idea. But you have to promise you won't completely freak out."

"I've seen some really strange things in my day," I promised.

"Nothing like this," he insisted. "Hold my hand, please."

That was an easy enough request, but he didn't hold it romantically at all. The next thing I knew, I felt like I was nothing. Not in the depressed sense that I had felt since I started dating Steven three years before, but literally like I was nothing. I couldn't breathe. I had all but stopped existing until suddenly… I did again. But I wasn't in London anymore. I was in the middle of the country, facing an architecturally impossible house.

"What in the name of hell just happened?"

"I can't explain it just yet. And you'll have to forgive my father. He's going to ask you some very weird questions. Probably about rubber ducks and electrical outlets. He's getting better, but he's not quite polite yet."

"We're at your house?"

"We are. Shall we?" That time, when he offered me his hand, I took it hesitatingly. "We're walking the rest of the way."

"Percy Weasley!" shrieked an older voice. "Where have you been? It's nearly midnight! But the clock said you weren't in any trouble - who is that?"

"Mum, I want you to meet…" He turned to me. "Oh goodness. We talked all afternoon and I never even asked your name."

"Audrey. My name is Audrey."

"Mum, I would like to introduce you to Audrey. She left a man at the altar today. She's got nothing. I thought maybe… she said she wanted to completely escape."

His mum smiled. "She'll have to keep a secret."

"I have no one left to tell," I said. "Whatever this secret is."

"We'll tell you in the morning, dear. For now, you should get some rest. If you'll follow me to my daughter's room, we'll get you some clothes."

Before I left the room, I turned again to Percy. There was something strange about his family, but it was full of love like I had never received from Steven. "Thank you. For everything." With a moment's pause, I leaned up to kiss his cheek before following his mother up the crooked stairs.


End file.
